Thank You
by Boriqua-chan
Summary: After the fight's finished, Sasuke thanks. Sakura then remembers those being his last words, so she asks him what he meant then.


**Requested by my friend, medicninsakura, on Tumblr.**

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Sakura frowned, her brows creasing in determination. Gingerly she grabbed onto Sasuke's arm. The idiot had been fighting with it broken for the past who knows how long. He was lucky the fighting was over and he hadn't gotten killed because of it. He shouldn't have fought injured, but of course he had been to stubborn to give half a shit. She shook her head, lightly pressing pressure onto his arm. She didn't miss his sharp intake of breath. Her frown deepened.

"I'm going to have to break it to set it," she warned. He was extremely lucky that the broken arm had been the worse of his broken bones. He had plenty of scars and his face was entirely bloody, but his nose was intact. She sighed for a second, trying to locate the exact place where it had broken, otherwise it wouldn't work. "It _will_ hurt."

"I've had broken bones before," he deadpanned.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "One," she started, pressing lightly on his arm. "Two." Just a bit more pressure. "_Three_." The bone broke with a muted snap as she quickly worked to set it. The hiss of pain was so low it was barely audible, but Sakura picked up on it and her frown deepened, even as her hands glowed green with chakra in an attempt to help along the healing. She angled his arm correctly; it was still broken, just she'd managed to set it correctly and lessen the fracture. She was running low on chakra; heaven forbid she run out any time soon. They still had to get home.

Throughout setting his arm, Sasuke's expressions never changed. The only hint of pain he showed was the thin gust of air he let slip through his teeth. Sakura looked up at him, wondering if he was truly as okay as he acted. Her breath stilled in her throat. The way his dark, onyx eyes looked at her...

"Thank you," Sasuke said. It took her a moment to realize that it wasn't just his voice sounding in her head. It had been so many times that she heard that voice in the back of her head, so many times that she'd heard those words in his voice, so many times she'd wondered what they meant.

Sakura swallowed, slowly moving her hands away from him. She couldn't let this go, not when she finally had him in front her her, not when she could finally have a civilized conversation with him. "What did you mean?" she wondered. She couldn't look away from his eyes, no matter how sure she was that he could read her as if she were an open book.

Sasuke sighed. "I thanked you," he explained, as if he were talking to a child. "For fixing my arm."

Pink strands fell over a wide forehead as she shook her head. "Not now." She shifted slightly, forcing her gaze away from his. Green eyes shot over his shoulder, looking past him. Ninja were cleaning up bodies. She thanked whatever god up there that she hadn't lost anyone close to her. "Back then," she murmured. She couldn't bring herself to actually say when. She could barely bring herself to remember it. She hadn't been strong enough to keep him, and that was still a sore spot for her.

She didn't have to say _when_; Sasuke was all too aware of what she meant. His jaw tightened, his eyes shifting away from her. There was a long moment of silence, heavy and awkward. Sakura adjusted herself again, moving to stand up. The horse, almost seductive gravel of his voice stopped her, making her turn her head to him. "I thanked you for..." He paused again, staring at the bridge of her nose instead of her eyes. "For having hope in me, when none could be found." The silence this time around was not as heavy; it was more shocked. "For loving me when no one else could."

His voice was low when he admitted the last part. His eyes were heavy, dragging down from her face to look at the ground before him. The silence was awkward, the only sound their combined breathing and the frantic shouting behind them.

Wind ruffled their hair. Sakura pressed her lips together, jade eyes tracing the elegant lines of his face. "I - I still do," she told him, her voice light in a way that was almost inaudible. "Believe in you... Love you." She sighed, running her hand through the strands of her pink hair. She saw Sasuke about to open his mouth, and beat him to it. "I know, I know - I'm 'annoying.'"

Sasuke shook his head. "Don't put words in my mouth," he insisted.


End file.
